1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a program product, and method for discriminating between combined results of a plurality of elements.
2. Description of Related Art
At ironworks, flat steel plates of various sizes are produced in accordance with orders, and are shipped. In production of flat steel plates, long large steel plates (large plates) are first produced through the rolling process. Then, in accordance with the orders, the large plates are cut into a plurality of steel plates (small plates) of various sizes. The resultant small plates are then examined and shipped as products.
When small plates of multiple sizes are cut from a large plate, a waste area that is not used as products increases depending on layouts of cutting positions, decreasing the yield. Thus, at ironworks, the computer computes combinations of layouts that allow efficient cutting out of small plates of multiple sizes from a large plate so as to improve the yield. A method of computing combinations of layouts that allows efficient cutting out of small plates is called the plate design problem.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-39358 describes a method for allocating plate-shaped products of multiple sizes from original plates. The method allows selection of the optimum layout pattern by creating layout patterns that represent layouts of plate-shaped products that can be cut within original plates and by giving evaluation values to the individual layout patterns and evaluation values to unallocated plate-shaped products.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 7-6184 describes a method for finding a plan that minimizes the value of the objective function of evaluation items desired to be minimized in the optimum cutting problem. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-128362 describes a method for selecting the top N process units in descending order of an input value from among N×N process units, which indicate layout positions of N to-be-arranged objects, such that to-be-arranged objects and layout positions are unique, and of obtaining an intended value by changing the input value of the selected process units.